Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: July 2021 Edition

Robots, drones and satellites: NSW to research new bushfire fighting technology
The NSW government will push to establish the state as a world leader in bushfire research eventually marketing new technology overseas, with close to $30 million set aside for the new project in next week’s budget.

Scientists warn of a bad year for fires in Brazil’s Amazon and wetlands
Dry weather this year raises the risk of severe fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest and Pantanal wetlands, scientists say, warning that a drought could fuel destruction of biomes critical to curbing climate change.

Indian Cities Prepare for Floods with Predictive Technology
The number and intensity of floods are increasing—they can inundate neighbourhoods in Chennai in just 15 minutes. New models can pinpoint and help warn vulnerable areas hours or even days in advance.

Small Satellites to Study Big Storms – NASA Prepares for the TROPICS Mission
In 2022 NASA is launching a constellation of six small satellites (smallsats) to improve our understanding of cyclones in the tropics. With a revisit time of 30 to 60 minutes between overpasses, the TROPICS mission will provide frequent observations of tropical storms as they form and strengthen, which will increase our understanding of the physical processes within storms and improve the accuracy of storm forecasts to better protect lives and property.

Canterbury floods: Is climate change to blame for severe weather events?
Victoria University climate change expert James Renwick says it is too early to say whether the Canterbury floods were caused by climate change, but the event is exactly what we can expect more of.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Climate Change Adaptation: Understanding Framework Roadblocks
On behalf of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), Tonkin + Taylor has undertaken an extensive analysis across 10 climate-vulnerable countries to identify potential roadblocks between climate change adaptation planning and disaster risk reduction (DRR) frameworks.

UNECE: Chief Statisticians bring statistics to the forefront of climate action
The heads of national statistical offices of 59 countries and 24 international organisations are gathered this week in Geneva and around the globe for the 69th plenary session of the Conference of European Statisticians, the decision-making body for statistical matters in the UNECE region and beyond.

The UCL Warning Research Centre Opens at the IRDR 11th Annual Conference
A new research centre, the world’s only one devoted to the study of warnings, was formally launched at the UCL Institute for Risk and Disaster Reduction 11th Annual Conference. The Warning Research Centre brings together global expertise to explore the role of warnings in managing vulnerabilities, hazards, risks, and disasters. The focus is to prevent adverse disaster impacts through improved warnings

GAR Special Report on Drought 2021
The GAR Special Report on Drought 2021 explores the systemic nature of drought and its impacts on the achievement of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the SDGs and human and ecosystems health and wellbeing.

WHO: Indicator framework for the evaluation of the public health effectiveness of digital proximity tracing solutions
The overall objective of this indicator framework is to provide a set of indicators to guide national health authorities in the monitoring and evaluation of their digital proximity tracing solutions.

FAO – Indigenous Peoples’ food systems: Insights on sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate changes
This publication provides an overview of the common and unique sustainability elements of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems, in terms of natural resource management, access to the market, diet diversity, indigenous peoples’ governance systems, and links to traditional knowledge and indigenous languages.

UNEP: Becoming #GenerationRestoration: ecosystem restoration for people, nature and climate
This report makes the case for why nature-based solutions, such as environmental restoration in particular, is so important and outlines how the UN Decade can catalyse a movement to restore the world’s ecosystems.

Seeking shelter: the factors that influence refuge since Cyclone Gorky in the Coastal Area of Bangladesh
This paper provides an assessment of the factors associated with evacuation to cyclone shelters in coastal areas in Bangladesh over the past 30 years. It is based on the comparative study of Cyclone Amphan (2020) and three major historical cyclones: Gorky (1991), Sidr (2007) and Aila (2009).

6 July – Foreseeable Future – Seamless Integration of data to enhance climate and disaster risk reduction
Join us in this side event (track 2, block 1) as part of UN Climate Change’s Asia Pacific Climate Week 2021 with experts from the Asian Development Bank, Green Climate Fund, UNDRR, GIZ and Tonkin + Taylor in this free webinar.

9 July – High-level dialogue on the Partnership in Action on Science, Technology and Innovation for SDGs Roadmaps
The event will discuss the path forward for the Partnership in Action, following the successful inception of the Global Pilot Programme on Science, Technology, and Innovation for the SDGs roadmaps.

11 July-14 July -The Hazards and Disaster Workforce: Preparing to Meet 21st Century Challenges
Conversations at this year’s Workshop will centre around how the workforce we have can support and build the workforce we need. How does the size and composition of the hazards and disaster workforce shape the ability to respond to and recover from extreme events?

26-28 July – 2021 Pacific Resilience Meeting
The biennial Pacific Resilience Meeting (PRM) is a key component of the Pacific Resilience Partnership (PRP) governance arrangements endorsed by the Pacific Island Forum Leaders in 2017 to support the effective implementation of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific: An Integrated Approach to Climate Change and Disaster (FRDP) 2017 – 2030.

26-28 July – Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit
The Pre-Summit of the UN Food Systems Summit will set the stage for the culminating global event in September by bringing together diverse actors from around the world to leverage the power of food systems to deliver progress on all 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Humans of Data 032

“When I think about how we can better support the sharing and preservation of research data, I think of the challenge we have in moving beyond our individual project-based approaches. Of course, it can be important for discovery to build specialized approaches, but we need to think about changing the entire practice and culture of research. It’s a system-level problem.

And open research data isn’t the same as Open Access publishing. The social justice aspects of open data are not the same as they are for public access to research articles. The Open Data movement can’t move forward on that argument alone. We have to start thinking about how to articulate our own vision for why openness matters. Reuse and auditability are key to our argument. So we need to make sure reuse of datasets is possible, and communicate why that’s important.”

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: June 2021 Edition

New NASA Earth System Observatory to Help Address, Mitigate Climate Change
NASA will design a new set of Earth-focused missions to provide key information to guide efforts related to climate change, disaster mitigation, fighting forest fires, and improving real-time agricultural processes. With the Earth System Observatory, each satellite will be uniquely designed to complement the others, working in tandem to create a 3D, holistic view of Earth, from bedrock to atmosphere.

Early warning initiative advances in a pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated impacts of extreme weather and climate change in vulnerable countries but also highlighted the need to build resilience against a multitude of hazards through better early warnings and risk information. This is one of the key messages of the 2020 Annual Report of the Climate Risk and Early Warning Systems Initiative (CREWS), a unique climate action programme that helps saves lives, livelihoods and assets in the world’s most vulnerable countries.

WMO: New climate predictions increase likelihood of temporarily reaching 1.5 °C in next 5 years
There is about a 40% chance of the annual average global temperature temporarily reaching 1.5°C above the pre-industrial level in at least one of the next five years – and these odds are increasing with time, according to a new climate update issued by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

New international expert panel to address the emergence and spread of zoonotic diseases
A new One Health High-Level Expert Panel to improve understanding of how diseases with the potential to trigger pandemics, emerge and spread has been launched. The panel will advise four international organisations – the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO); the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE); the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP); and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

WMO joins Emergency Alerting Call to Action
The WMO has joined with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to issue a joint Call to Action to improve the availability and use of standardised emergency alerts.

The World Bank – Applying a gender lens to climate actions: why it matters
This brief explores the gender-specific effects of climate change and how inequality can exacerbate the impacts of climate-induced disasters. Gender inequalities, fueled by societal norms and defined gender roles, affect not only women’s exposure to hazards, but also limit their resilience and adaptive capabilities. Therefore, governments are urged to examine the impacts of climate change through a gender lens to address key barriers to gender-responsive climate actions, and increase the roles that women play in decision-making to close such vulnerability gaps.

British Ecological Society: Nature-based solutions for climate change in the UK
The main focus of this report is the joint role of nature-based solutions (NbS) for addressing the climate and biodiversity crises currently facing the UK. Nature-based solutions address societal problems in ways that benefit both people and nature.

WHO: Review of health in National Adaptation Plans
As part of the response to the threats posed by climate change across all sectors, the National Adaptation Plan (NAP) process was established to build resilience to climate change across economies, societies and ecosystems over the medium and longer term.

The World Bank: Climate Change Institutional Assessment
The Climate Change Institutional Assessment (CCIA) identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the institutional framework for addressing these climate change governance challenges. The audience for the assessment is officials of centre-of-government agencies responsible for policy, planning, and finance, agencies with leading roles in climate change policy, and inter-ministerial climate change bodies.

Responsible artificial intelligence for disaster risk management: working group summary
This document is intended to help practitioners and project managers working in disaster risk ensure that the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) in particular, is done in a manner that is both effective and responsible. The content of this report was produced as part of a 6-month interdisciplinary collaboration between experts from intergovernmental organizations, non-profits, academia, and the private sector.

Parallel Session: Geospatial data for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction – June 22
Join this parallel session on Geospatial data for climate resilience and disaster risk reduction in the GEO Virtual Symposium 2021. We will discuss good practice, lessons learned on EO data and solutions for risk assessment, damage mapping and the development of plans.

UNECE: First Expert Forum for Producers and Users of Disaster-related Statistics – June 7-10
The importance of setting up mechanisms to ensure collaboration and coordination of work on disaster-related statistics across disciplines and organizations has been recognized on national and international level, including the United Nations Statistical Commission (UNSC) and the Conference of European Statisticians (CES). The first Expert Forum for Producers and Users of Disaster-related Statistics will take place as an online meeting on 7, 8 and 10 June 2021

The Integrated Research on Disaster Risk 2021 International Conference – June 8-10
The overall purpose of the 2021 Conference is to reach a renewed consensus on the mission of STEI and put forward a novel proposal on the Global Research Agenda for disaster risk reduction and risk-informed development toward 2030 and beyond.

UN Food Systems Summit: Science Days – July 8-9
Recognising the pivotal role of science, technology and innovation for food systems transformation, the Science Days, organized by the Scientific Group of the UN Food Systems Summit and facilitated and hosted by FAO, offer an important opportunity to support the agenda setting process with scientific evidence and perspectives.

Data for Policy Conference 2021 – Sept 14-16
The sixth International Data for Policy Conference will take place in London on September 14-16, 2021. The Data for Policy conference series is the premier global forum for multiple disciplinary and cross-sector discussions around the theories, applications and implications of data science innovation in governance and the public sector.

May 2021: Publications in the Data Science Journal

	Title: SwissEnvEO: A FAIR National Environmental Data Repository for Earth Observation Open Science Author: Gregory Giuliani, Hugues Cazeaux, Pierre-Yves Burgi, Charlotte Poussin, Jean-Philippe Richard, Bruno Chatenoux URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-022
	Title:On the Importance of 3D Surface Information for Remote Sensing Classification Tasks Author: Jan Petrich, Ryan Sander, Eliza Bradley, Adam Dawood, Shawn Hough URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/ds,j-2021-020
	Title: Call to Action for Global Access to and Harmonization of Quality Information of Individual Earth Science Datasets Author:Ge Peng , Robert R. Downs, Carlo Lacagnina, Hampapuram Ramapriyan, Ivana Ivánová, David Moroni, Yaxing Wei, Gilles Larnicol, Lesley Wyborn, Mitch Goldberg, Jörg Schulz, Irina Bastrakova, Anette Ganske, Lucy Bastin, Siri Jodha S. Khalsa, Mingfang Wu, Chung-Lin Shie, Nancy Ritchey, Dave Jones, Ted Habermann, Christina Lief, Iolanda Maggio, Mirko Albani, Shelley Stall, Lihang Zhou, Marie Drévillon, Sarah Champion, C. Sophie Hou, Francisco Doblas-Reyes, Kerstin Lehnert, Erin Robinson, Kaylin Bugbee URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-019

April 2021: Publications in the Data Science Journal

	Title: A Controlled Vocabulary and Metadata Schema for Materials Science Data Discovery Author: Andrea Medina-Smith, Chandler A. Becker, Raymond L. Plante, Laura M. Bartolo, Alden Dima, James A. Warren, Robert J. Hanisch URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-018
	Title:Improving Discovery and Use of NASA’s Earth Observation Data Through Metadata Quality Assessments Author: Kaylin Bugbee, Jeanné le Roux, Adam Sisco, Aaron Kaulfus, Patrick Staton, Camille Woods, Valerie Dixon, Christopher Lynnes, Rahul Ramachandran URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/ds,j-2021-017
	Title: Synthetic Reproduction and Augmentation of COVID-19 Case Reporting Data by Agent-Based Simulation Author: Nikolas Popper, Melanie Zechmeister, Dominik Brunmeir, Claire Rippinger, Nadine Weibrecht, Christoph Urach, Martin Bicher, Günter Schneckenreither , Andreas Rauber URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-016
	Title: Implementing a Registry Federation for Materials Science Data Discovery Author: Raymond L. Plante, Chandler A. Becker, Andrea Medina-Smith , Kevin Brady, Alden Dima, Benjamin Long, Laura M. Bartolo, James A. Warren, Robert J. Hanisch URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-015
	Title: Adaptable Methods for Training in Research Data Management Author:Katarzyna Biernacka , Kerstin Helbig, Petra Buchholz URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-014

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: May 2021 Edition

UNDRR: COVID-19 recovery is an opportunity for gender equality
UNDRR head, Ms. Mami Mizutori, underlines the need to put women’s resilience at the heart of the pandemic recovery which should be grasped as an opportunity “to promote women’s leadership and achieve gender equality.”

UNHCR: Data visualisation reveals impacts of climate change on displacement
The UN Refugee Agency, has released a new data visualisation ‘Displaced on the frontlines of climate change’ that shows how the climate emergency is converging with other threats to drive new displacement and increase the vulnerability of those already forced to flee.

Updated Global Disaster Alert to allow faster humanitarian and relief response
European Commission’ Joint Research Centre launches during the 2021 Humanitarian Network and Partnership Week a new version of the Global Disaster Alert and Coordination System (GDACS) platform, which covers alerts for wildfires and features new tools for social media monitoring and satellite mapping of areas in distress and in need of immediate humanitarian intervention.

WMO: 2021 is “make or break year” for Climate Action
2021 must be the year for climate action – “the make it or break it year,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres at the launch of WMO’s report on the State of the Global Climate 2020 which highlighted accelerating climate change indicators and worsening impacts.

U.S. Dept of State: Launching agriculture innovation mission for climate
At President Biden’s Leaders Summit on Climate on April 23, 2021, the United States and United Arab Emirates, with endorsement from the United Kingdom’s COP 26 Presidency, and with support from Australia, Brazil, Denmark, Israel, Singapore, and Uruguay, announced plans to launch the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM for Climate).

FEMA: The National Risk Index
The National Risk Index (The Index) is an online tool to help illustrate the USA’s communities most at risk of natural hazards. It is made possible through a collaboration between FEMA and dozens of partners in academia; local, state and federal government; and private industry.

Launch of the Atlas of Demography
On 29 April 2021, the first edition of the EU Atlas of Demography was launched in a panel discussion with the President of the Committee of the Regions Apostolos Tzitzikostas and the Portuguese Minister of State for the Presidency Mariana Vieira da Silva.

WHO: Spending on health in Europe: entering a new era
This report analyses health spending in 53 countries in the WHO European Region from 2000 to 2018 (the latest year for which internationally comparable data are available). It reviews key patterns and trends in health spending over time and across countries.

UNDP: Agriculture guide for recovery implementation
The guide describes the role of agriculture in a country’s development and the potential impact that natural disasters can have on the sector. It recommends the types of agriculture interventions to be implemented in the short-, medium- and long-term stages of recovery and reconstruction taking into consideration DRR and BBB aspects.

WMO: Future of weather and climate forecasting
This White Paper on the Future of Weather and Climate Forecasting is a collective endeavour of more than 30 lead scientists and experts to analyse trends, challenges and opportunities in a very dynamic environment. The main purpose of the paper is to set directions and recommendations for scheduled progress, avoiding potential disruptions and leveraging opportunities through public-private engagement over the coming decade.

First report of the WMO COVID-19 task team: Review on meteorological and air quality factors affecting the COVID-19 pandemic
This First Report of the WMO Research Board COVID-19 Task Team, provides an assessment of the state of knowledge of meteorological and air quality (MAQ) factors influencing the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report critically appraises peer reviewed studies on the role of MAQ factors (Temperature, Humidity, Solar radiation, Air Quality, etc.) on the spatial and temporal variability of COVID-19 incidence and severity across climate zones, including clear interrogation of uncertainties.

21-23 June (Virtual) – FAIR Festival 2021
The FAIR Festival 2021 will feature plenary sessions, provide an open space to continue ongoing discussions as well as allow a collaborative “Deep Dive” into crisp sessions where FAIR practices on GO BUILD – GO TRAIN – GO CHANGE will be presented by Implementation Networks.

Call for Proposals: GEO “Open EO” track at FOSS4G – Deadline May 4
GEO is supporting FOSS4G with a 3-day dedicated track on “Open EO”. The interactive sessions, lightning talks and workshops will highlight how open EO and related innovations contribute to and support the GEO engagement priorities, focusing on the following topics: Climate Action, Disaster Risk Reduction, Sustainable Development and Urban Resilience.

June 15-16 – 58th ESReDA Seminar – Using Knowledge to Manage Risks and Threats: Practices and Challenges
The 58th ESReDA seminar will be a forum for participants to discuss theories, concepts, and experiences of enhancing the use of knowledge for better risk management and governance. This seminar will bring together researchers, practitioners, specialists, and decision-makers to discuss strategies and practical experiences

Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks 2021
The largest event of its kind: the 7th edition of the HNPW will once again gather experts and humanitarian professionals from more than 40 participating networks and partnerships

Motivating Local Action to Address Climate Impacts and Build Resilience
This Workshop is for the Committee on Applied Research for Hazard Mitigation and Resilience to gather data for their first consensus report on the theme “Incorporating Future Climate Conditions into Local Actions”. The Workshop will feature four, 1-hour panels consisting of academics, community organizers, and industry experts on this topic.

March 2021: Publications in the Data Science Journal

	Title: Affiliation Information in DataCite Dataset Metadata: a Flemish Case Study Author: Niek Van Wettere URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-013
	Title: Versioning Data Is About More than Revisions: A Conceptual Framework and Proposed Principles Author: Jens Klump, Lesley Wyborn, Mingfang Wu, Julia Martin, Robert R. Downs, Ari Asmi URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/ds,j-2021-012
	Title: Sample Identifiers and Metadata to Support Data Management and Reuse in Multidisciplinary Ecosystem Sciences Author: Joan E. Damerow, Charuleka Varadharajan, Kristin Boye, Eoin L. Brodie, Madison Burrus, K. Dana Chadwick, Robert Crystal-Ornelas, Hesham Elbashandy, Ricardo J. Eloy Alves, Kim S. Ely, Amy E. Goldman, Ted Haberman, Valerie Hendrix, Zarine Kakalia, Kenneth M. Kemner, Annie B. Kersting, Nancy Merino, Fianna O’Brien, Zach Perzan, Emily Robles, Patrick Sorensen, James C. Stegen, Ramona L. Walls, Pamela Weisenhorn, Mavrik Zavarin, Deborah Agarwal URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-011

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: April 2021 Edition

An early warning system could save global supply chain crisis
‘An industry’s supply chain is several miles long, but only an eighth of an inch deep’. Given the widespread strain a year ago regarding shortages, the global trading system has, in many ways, held up remarkably well during the pandemic. However, how resilient are our supply chains?”

Biden targets big offshore wind power expansion to fight climate change
The Biden administration on Monday unveiled a goal to expand the nation’s fledgling offshore wind energy industry in the coming decade by opening new areas to development, accelerating permits, and boosting public financing for projects.

‘Wilful ignorance’: Flood-hit Australia urged to rethink climate adaptation
As climate change impacts worsen, Australia’s population is exposed to more severe floods, droughts and bushfires, while action to protect people and their homes lags.

The science of tsunamis and what parts of New Zealand are most at risk
A tsunami warning was issued after an 8.1 earthquake struck near the Kermadec Islands in March – hours after a 7.4 quake near the Kermadecs and a 7.1 off the North Island coast of New Zealand.

UK Govt: Innovative projects to protect against flooding selected
Apps alerting residents to flooding, permeable road surfaces to improve drainage and schemes to protect vital sand dune beaches are among 25 new flooding and coastal resilience projects across England awarded funding today.

WMO: New water and climate coalition launched
A new Water and Climate Change coalition has been launched to achieve more effective integrated policy-making in an era when climate change, environmental degradation and population growth has exacerbated water-related hazards and scarcity.

Science for Disaster Risk Management 2020
The Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre has produced the “Science for disaster risk management 2020: acting today, protecting tomorrow”, the second of its series. The report represents a collaborative effort of more than 300 experts on disaster risk, coming from different sectors and disciplines, that worked for more than 2 years together to present the consequences of disasters on various assets at risk

The United Nations world water development report 2021: valuing water
This report groups current methodologies and approaches to the valuation of water into five interrelated perspectives.

Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF)
The Integrated Geospatial Information Framework (IGIF) provides a basis and guide for developing, integrating, strengthening and maximizing geospatial information management and related resources in all countries. It will assist countries in bridging the geospatial digital divide, secure socio-economic prosperity, and to leave no one behind.

Looking back at a year that changed the world: WHO’s response to COVID-19
This report reflects on WHO’s role at the centre of a global response that has unfolded on a scale that dwarfs any single organisation.

Looking back at a year that changed the world: WHO’s response to COVID-19
The report identifies the shifts needed to close gaps between current actions and those needed to achieve sustainable development. The analysis is anchored in current economic, social and ecological reality and framed by economics and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Universities’ Preparedness and Response towards Multi-Hazards: COVID-19, Natural, and Human-Induced Hazards
This publication collects the efforts made by universities in the response and preparedness toward the COVID-19 pandemic as well as other hazards such as earthquakes, fires, and anthropogenic hazards. This compilation includes 26 case studies from 13 countries. It aims to keep a record of what happened and success and failures to learn from the experience and prepare for the next hazardous events.

EGU21: Gather Online – 19–30 April 2021
The EGU General Assembly 2021 will bring together geoscientists from all over the world to one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary, and space sciences. The EGU aims to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience. The EGU is looking forward to cordially welcoming you at its General Assembly.

International Data Week’s SciDataCon 2021: Data to Improve our World – Deadline for proposals – 30 April
Proposals are invited for sessions at International Data Week’s SciDataCon 2021: Data to Improve our World. The deadline for proposals is 23:59 UTC on 30 April 2021.

Open Science for a Global Transformation: Call for Papers for a Special Collection in Data Science Journal
To encourage further discussion around the issues addressed in ‘Open Science for a Global Transformation’ and the draft Recommendation on Open Science, CODATA invites the global research data community to share their views, critiques, and positions in an open discussion prompted by the draft recommendation and the CODATA-coordinated document.

UNDRR: Online Capacity Development Workshop on Disaster Risk Reduction Strategies and Digital Governance for Local Resilience – Online – 6 April-13 April
This training will provide concepts, tools, and approaches for implementing the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 at the local level. It will also provide guidance for digital government for disaster risk reduction and resilience.

Disaster Risk Reduction and Open Data Newsletter: March 2021 Edition

UNOCHA: Why the climate crisis is a humanitarian emergency
The unfolding climate emergency is adding an additional layer of stress to humanitarian organisations that are already stretched thinner than ever before.

Texas Blackouts Point to Coast-to-Coast Crises Waiting to Happen
Continent-spanning storms triggered blackouts in Oklahoma and Mississippi, halted one-third of U.S. oil production and disrupted vaccinations in 20 states.

Smart weather app helps Kenya’s herders brace for drought
As climate change brings more weather extremes, access to village-level drought updates and advice via smartphones is helping under-pressure pastoralists cope.

WMO: Artificial intelligence can boost disaster management
The World Meteorological Organization is participating in a new interdisciplinary Focus Group to contend with the increasing prevalence and severity of natural hazards with the help of artificial intelligence (AI).

Drier European summers projected under climate change
A new study projects that summers across the continent will become drier for most of Europe through the century. Furthermore, human-induced climate change is expected to increase the frequency of extremely dry conditions across all of Europe.

UNEP: Making Peace With Nature – A scientific blueprint to tackle the climate, biodiversity and pollution emergencies
This report identifies the shifts needed to close gaps between current actions and those needed to achieve sustainable development. The analysis is anchored in current economic, social and ecological reality and framed by economics and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Heat and health in the WHO European Region: updated evidence for effective prevention
This publication collates and summarises the most relevant evidence published since 2008, focusing primarily on Member States in the WHO European Region. Findings are organised around the elements the original guidance document identified as “core” to a comprehensive heat–health action plan (HHAP), and these are complemented in each chapter with the results of a WHO survey of heat–health action planning in 2019, where relevant to the topic covered.

UNEP: The climate risk landscape – Mapping climate-related financial risk assessment methodologies
The report ‘The Climate Risk Landscape: Mapping Climate-related Financial Risk Assessment Methodologies’ provides a summary of the key developments across third party climate risk assessment providers since May 2019, including new and updated scenarios, methodological tools, key guidelines, as well as an overview of the changing regulatory landscape and potential developments into 2021.

WHO guidance for climate-resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities
The aim of this guidance is to enhance the capacity of health care facilities to protect and improve the health of their target communities in an unstable and changing climate; and to empower health care facilities to be environmentally sustainable, by optimizing the use of resources and minimizing the release of waste into the environment.

8 March – International Women’s Day: Women in leadership – achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world
This International Women’s Day, UNDRR’s Women’s International Network on Disaster Risk Reduction and UN Women’s Regional Office for Asia-Pacific will co-host a virtual event highlighting the need for women’s leadership in COVID-19 recovery, and recognising the women who have played an essential role in their country’s COVID-19 response.

22 March – GYA Satellite Panel: Trust in Climate Change
This GYA event brings together senior and early-career scientists to address trust in climate science, starting from the contributions of their diverse scientific disciplines..

February 2021: Publications in the Data Science Journal

	Title: A School and a Network: CODATA-RDA Data Science Summer Schools Alumni Survey Author: Louise Bezuidenhout, Sara Drummond-Curtis, Bridget Walker, Hugh Shanahan, Marcela Alfaro-Córdoba URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-010
	Title: Implementing Data Management Workflows in Research Groups Through Integrated Library Consultancy Author: Joshua Borycz URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/ds,j-2021-009
	Title: Kadi4Mat: A Research Data Infrastructure for Materials Science Author:Nico Brandt, Lars Griem, Christoph Herrmann, Ephraim Schoof, Giovanna Tosato, Yinghan Zhao, Philipp Zschumme, Michael Selzer URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-008
	Title: Stewardship Maturity Assessment Tools for Modernization of Climate Data Management Author:Robert Dunn, Christina Lief, Ge Peng, William Wright, Omar Baddour, Markus Donat, Brigitte Dubuisson, Jean-François Legeais, Peter Siegmund, Reinaldo Silveira, Xiaolan L. Wang, Markus Ziese URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-007
	Title: Leading FAIR Adoption Across the Institution: A Collaboration Between an Academic Library and a Technology Provider Author: Danuta A. Nitecki, Adi Alter URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-006
	Title: Relationship between the Metadata and Relevance Criteria of Scientific Data Author: Guilan Zhang, Jian Wang , Jianping Liu, Yao Pan URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-005
	Title: From Conceptualization to Implementation: FAIR Assessment of Research Data Objects Author: Anusuriya Devaraju , Mustapha Mokrane, Linas Cepinskas, Robert Huber, Patricia Herterich, Jerry de Vries, Vesa Akerman, Hervé L’Hours, Joy Davidson, Michael Diepenbroek URL: http://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2021-004